Do babies actually wear these things?

We were putting things in the display cabinets on Friday when one of the other volunteers at the Showground held up a lovely little jacket. We both looked at it and wondered who puts little white lacy jackets on babies any more. 

"Probably not," was my answer, "It isn't the sort of thing you would do even for a Christening."

The winning item in that class was a tiny, bright red cardigan with two little Scottish terriers on it. Yes, it might need hand washing but it was soft, warm and otherwise very practical. 

But people still knit the other sort of garments for entering in the Show. I suspect they do it because they think this is what the judge is looking for - when the judge is looking for something modern and much more practical.

Lacey knitting is not good for babies. Their little fingers get caught up in it. Crochet is often even worse. I wouldn't make something like that but people still do. I saw one garment recently. It was made from cheap acrylic yarn and the "holes" in the crochet were large enough that there would have been no warmth in the garment at all.

Most babies wear those all in one suits now. They are made from the sort of thing you can "just fling in the washing machine". I imagine it is much easier to care for than the sort of thing my mother dressed us in.  I clearly remember that "buster suit" with the smocking on the shirt of the train. My baby brother wore that for "best" until the day he went to play with the men who were repairing the road with tar. I was not very old at the time but I can still remember my mother's fury. Hours of work must have gone into that. My brother's own children wore the "onesies" and then things from knit fabrics and items knitted by my mother or me over the top in winter. They dress their own children even more simply.

And then I thought of the family Christening gown. It is almost one hundred and fifty years old now and unlikely to be used again because the newest babies have all been too big for it to fit them. It is not a particularly lavish garment in terms of lace but it is made entirely by hand with many pin tucks in it. We think it was made by my great-great-great grandmother and, as a family, we are indeed fortunate that it has been cared for and the cousin who now has it has had an expert do all the necessary things to care for it. 

I wonder what most young mothers would think of it. A very few of them still have nicely smocked frocks. They appear in the display cabinets of dressmaking at the Show and I occasionally see little girls wearing them but I haven't seen one of those smocked shirts on a little boy here for a very long time. They did look good at the time - but they were definitely not practical!